SciShow and Now This explain how recycling works for America Recycles Day 2020

Happy America Recycles Day! For this year's celebration, I'm sharing two videos explaining how recycling works, beginning with SciShow's How Recycling Works. Nothing like showing the science and technology of recycling!

Join SciShow as we explore what happens to your stuff after you toss it into the little green bin with the arrows on it.

All of the animation in this video gives an idealized picture, pun intended, of the science and technology behind how recycled materials are sorted. Now This places those in a larger context when it answers What Happens to Your Recycling After It's Collected?

We followed the recycling process from the bins to the plant to understand where our recycling actually goes – here's what happens to your recycling.

"Wish-cycling" works very well to describe one of the problems with recycling, which I examined in Vox explains why we're recycling wrong — Student Sustainability Video Festival 82 and Recycling is broken but it can be fixed says It's Okay To Be Smart. As I wrote in the latter, "America doesn't just need to recycle more, it needs to recycle better." Here's to hoping that the videos I share here contribute to both parts of that goal. Once again, happy America Recycles Day!